Junkyard Gem: 1995 Mazda B4000 LE Cab Plus

Starting in 1972, Ford began selling Mazda Proceed pickups with Courier badges in the United States. At the same time, Mazda was selling the same trucks here as the B-Series. Then the Ranger replaced the Courier in 1983, while the B-Series remained available in North America through 1993. For 1994, the Mazda/Ford pickup world got flipped on its head, with a Mazda-ized Ranger taking over the B-Series name here. Today’s Junkyard Gem is one of the early Ford-built Mazda pickups, found in a North Carolina car graveyard recently.

The precedent for slapping Mazda badges on U.S.-market Ford trucks began with the 1991 model year, when the brand-new Explorer went on sale as the Mazda Navajo. During the 1990s, plenty of Mazda-derived Ford and Mercury models were being sold here, including the Ford Festiva, Ford Probe, Ford Escort, Mercury Tracer and Mercury Capri, so it made sense to deepen the relationship by moving some Dearborn iron in the other direction.

But still, some in Hiroshima must have been saddened by the replacement of the proud B-Series with Ford products.

The four digits after the B in B-Series model designations referred to engine displacement in cubic centimeters, with the 1971 B1600 beginning that tradition. This truck being a B4000, it has the 4.0-liter version of the pushrod Cologne V6 engine. Output was 160 horsepower and 225 pound-feet. B2300s and B3000s were available as well.

The first appearance of the Cologne V6 in new cars sold in the United States was in the 1969 Capri, which was sold through Mercury dealers here but never given Mercury badging. The SOHC version of the Cologne 4.0 was bolted into various new U.S.-market Fords all the way through the early 2010s.

This truck is the most expensive rear-wheel-drive Mazda B-Series available for the 1995 model year, with the long wheelbase, the biggest engine, the top LE trim level and the extended Cab Plus.